Westwood deserves a leader who will listen to residents, focus on what matters most, and deliver solutions which make our community stronger.
Prioritize.
Not every issue can be solved at once.
Westwood's most pressing priority is addressing the FS1 crisis.
However, residents should not be expected to evaluate and approve any single project, no matter how important or urgent, in a vacuum.
Westwood has historically dealt with these capital improvement projects separately, on a stand-alone basis. This has led to one debt exclusion after another alongside a steady increase in property taxes. This approach is not sustainable.
We would achieve better outcomes by instead creating a long-term, holistic capital investment plan which identifies and assesses, together, every capital project in the pipeline and every site available to the Town.
This would give residents the whole picture when considering any individual project, would encourage the Town to proactively address capital needs before they become crises, and would produce creative solutions to maximize efficiencies and cost savings for the benefit of our whole community.
For example, many towns combine police and fire stations. Westwood built a new police station in 2017. At that point it was clear that FS1 would soon need replacement and that the Deerfield School was nearing the end of its useful life. The Town missed an opportunity to combine those projects into a single solution which could have been built by now, avoiding the current crisis and the significant costs associated with addressing it.
The Town and its schools are a single community, not separate entities. I will foster greater cooperation between the Select Board and the School Committee and greater integration, where possible, of the Town, and school, capital projects - sharing space when possible to maximize community benefits and minimize costs.
Future plans for Thurston Middle School, the Town Hall, the Sheehan School, new sidewalks, parks, playing fields, and any other Town projects should be laid on the table now, in order to produce a long-term comprehensive plan which will address, together, the long-term needs of our schools and our community. while protecting and enhancing Westwood’s small town character.
Ideally, every future capital improvement project would address multiple community needs in a way which makes the best use of our real property assets and every tax dollar spent and reduces the amount of future debt exclusions.
Better Solutions.